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Ride-hailing app Grab introduces P2P payments feature

30 August 2017

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Southeast Asian ride-hailing service Grab is venturing further into the payments market, adding a P2P instant fund transfer feature to its app in Singapore.

Users will be able to transfer 'GrabPay Credits' to one another and, from later in the year, to merchants. Grab says that it aims to team up with more than 1000 firms that are cash-reliant, enabling them to accept digital payments through its GrabPay mobile wallet.

Jason Thompson, head, GrabPay, says: "Every day, over 75% of Grab users in Singapore go cashless and use GrabPay to pay for rides. Grab users are familiar with using mobile payments for daily transactions, via the Grab app.

"Fund transfer is the first step to expand the use of GrabPay as a mobile wallet. Today, users can transfer money to one another; in the coming months, they can look forward to use GrabPay to buy food or other goods and services from physical shops."

Grab has made no secret of its efforts to become "the #1 universal mobile payments solution in Southeast Asia". In April, the firm agreed to buy Indonesian digital payments outfit Kudo to boost the GrabPay business.

Meanwhile, as it asks customers to put faith in its ability to protect their money, the firm has introduced a new six-digit GrabPay PIN as a second factor authentication to make the mobile wallet more secure. Customers with more than $150 worth of credits in their account are required to activate the PIN.